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Books: The Monastery

S >> Sir Walter Scott >> The Monastery




The monk perceived with surprise, that Edward, with his extreme
diffidence, humility, and obedient assiduity, for such were his
general characteristics, had still boiling in his veins the wild
principles of those from whom he was descended, and by whom he was
surrounded. His eyes sparkled, his frame was agitated, and the
extremity of his desire for vengeance seemed to give a vehemence to
his manner resembling the restlessness of joy.

"May God help us," said Father Eustace, "for, frail wretches as we are,
we cannot help ourselves under sudden and strong temptation.--Edward,
I will rely on your word that you do nothing rashly."

"That will I not," said Edward,--"that, my better than father, I
surely will not. But the blood of my brother,--the tears of my
mother--and--and--and of Mary Avenel, shall not be shed in vain. I
will not deceive you, father--if this Piercie Shafton hath slain my
brother, he dies, if the whole blood of the whole house of Piercie
were in his veins."

There was a deep and solemn determination in the utterance of Edward
Glendinning expressive of a rooted resolution. The Sub-Prior sighed
deeply, and for the moment yielded to circumstances, and urged the
acquiescence of his pupil no farther. He commanded lights to be placed
in the lower chamber, which for a time he paced in silence.

A thousand ideas, and even differing principles, debated with each
other in his bosom. He greatly doubted the English knight's account of
the duel, and of what had followed it. Yet the extraordinary and
supernatural circumstances which had befallen the Sacristan and
himself in that very glen, prevented him from being absolutely
incredulous on the score of the wonderful wound and recovery of Sir
Piercie Shafton, and prevented him from at once condemning as
impossible that which was altogether improbable. Then he was at a loss
how to control the fraternal affections of Edward, with respect to
whom he felt something like the keeper of a wild animal, a lion's
whelp or tiger's cub, which he has held under his command from
infancy, but which, when grown to maturity, on some sudden provocation
displays his fangs and talons, erects his crest, resumes his savage
nature, and bids defiance at once to his keeper and to all mankind.

How to restrain and mitigate an ire which the universal example of the
times rendered deadly and inveterate, was sufficient cause of anxiety
to Father Eustace. But he had also to consider the situation of his
community, dishonoured and degraded by submitting to suffer the
slaughter of a vassal to pass unavenged; a circumstance which of
itself might in those times have afforded pretext for a revolt among
their wavering adherents, or, on the other hand, exposed the community
to imminent danger, should they proceed against a subject of England
of high degree, connected with the house of Northumberland, and other
northern families of high rank, who, as they possessed the means,
could not be supposed to lack inclination, to wreak upon the patrimony
of Saint Mary of Kennaquhair, any violence which might be offered to
their kinsman.

In either case, the Sub-Prior well knew that the ostensible cause of
feud, insurrection, or incursion, being once afforded, the case would
not be ruled either by reason or by evidence, and he groaned in spirit
when, upon counting up the chances which arose in this ambiguous
dilemma, he found he had only a choice of difficulties. He was a monk,
but he felt also as a man, indignant at the supposed slaughter of
young Glendinning by one skilful in all the practice of arms, in which
the vassal of the Monastery was most likely to be deficient; and to
aid the resentment which he felt for the loss of a youth whom he had
known from infancy, came in full force the sense of dishonour arising
to his community from passing over so gross an insult unavenged. Then
the light in which it might be viewed by those who at present presided
in the stormy Court of Scotland, attached as they were to the
Reformation, and allied by common faith and common interest with Queen
Elizabeth, was a formidable subject of apprehension. The Sub-Prior
well knew how they lusted after the revenues of the Church, (to
express it in the ordinary phrase of the religious of the time,) and
how readily they would grasp at such a pretext for encroaching on
those of Saint Mary's, as would be afforded by the suffering to pass
unpunished the death of a native Scottishman by a Catholic Englishman,
a rebel to Queen Elizabeth.

On the other hand, to deliver up to England, or, which was nearly the
same thing, the Scottish administration, an English knight leagued
with the Piercie by kindred and political intrigue, a faithful
follower of the Catholic Church, who had fled to the Halidome for
protection, was, in the estimation of the Sub-Prior, an act most
unworthy in itself, and meriting the malediction of Heaven, besides
being, moreover, fraught with great temporal risk. If the government
of Scotland was now almost entirely in the hands of the Protestant
party, the Queen was still a Catholic, and there was no knowing when,
amid the sudden changes which agitated that tumultuous country, she
might find herself at the head of her own affairs, and able to protect
those of her own faith. Then, if the Court of England and its Queen
were zealously Protestant, the northern counties, whose friendship or
enmity were of most consequence in the first instance to the community
of Saint Mary's, contained many Catholics, the heads of whom were
able, and must be supposed willing, to avenge any injury suffered by
Sir Piercie Shafton.

On either side, the Sub-Prior, thinking, according to his sense of
duty, most anxiously for the safety and welfare of his Monastery, saw
the greatest risk of damage, blame, inroad, and confiscation. The only
course on which he could determine, was to stand by the helm like a
resolute pilot, watch every contingence, do his best to weather each
reef and shoal, and commit the rest to heaven and his patroness.

As he left the apartment, the knight called after him, beseeching he
would order his trunk-mails to be sent into his apartment,
understanding he was to be guarded there for the night, as he wished
to make some alteration in his apparel.

[Footnote: Sir Piercie Shafton's extreme love of dress was an
attribute of the coxcombs of this period. The display made by their
forefathers was in the numbers of their retinue; but as the actual
influence of the nobility began to be restrained both in France and
England by the increasing power of the crown, the indulgence of vanity
in personal display became more inordinate. There are many allusions
to this change of custom in Shakspeare and other dramatic writers,
where the reader may find mention made of

"Bonds enter'd into
For gay apparel against the triumph day."

Jonson informs us, that for the first entrance of a gallant, "'twere
good you turned four or five hundred acres of your best land into two
or three trunks of apparel."--_Every Man out of his Humour._

In the Memorie of the Somerville family, a curious instance occurs of
this fashionable species of extravagance. In the year 1537, when
James V. brought over his shortlived bride from France, the Lord
Somerville of the day was so profuse in the expense of his apparel,
that the money which he borrowed on the occasion was compensated by a
perpetual annuity of threescore pounds Scottish, payable out of the
barony of Carnwarth till doomsday, which was assigned by the creditor
to Saint Magdalen's Chapel. By this deep expense the Lord Somerville
had rendered himself so glorious in apparel, that the King, who saw so
brave a gallant enter the gate of Holyrood, followed, by only two
pages, called upon several of the courtiers to ascertain who it could
be who was so richly dressed and so slightly attended, and he was not
recognised until he entered the presence-chamber. "You are very brave,
my lord," said the King, as he received his homage; "but where are all
your men and attendants?" The Lord Somerville readily answered, "If it
please your Majesty, here they are," pointing to the lace that was on
his own and his pages' clothes: whereat the King laughed heartily, and
having surveyed the finery more nearly, bade him have away with it
all, and let him have his stout band of spears again.

There is a scene in Jonson's "Every Man out of his Humour," (Act IV.
Scene 6.) in which a Euphuist of the time gives an account of the
effects of a duel on the clothes of himself and his opponent, and
never departs a syllable from the catalogue of his wardrobe. We shall
insert it in evidence that the foppery of our ancestors was not
inferior to that of our own time.

"_Fastidius_. Good faith, Signior, now you speak of a quarrel,
I'll acquaint you with a difference that happened between a gallant
and myself, Sir Puntarvolo. You know him if I should name him--Signor
Luculento.

"_Punt_. Luculento! What inauspicious chance interposed itself to
your two lives?

"_Fast_. Faith, sir, the same that sundered Agamemnon, and great
Thetis' son; but let the cause escape, sir. He sent me a challenge,
mixt with some few braves, which I restored; and, in fine, we met. Now
indeed, sir, I must tell you, he did offer at first very desperately,
but without judgment; for look you, sir, I cast myself into this
figure; now he came violently on, and withal advancing his rapier to
strike, I thought to have took his arm, for he had left his body to my
election, and I was sure he could not recover his guard. Sir, I mist
my purpose in his arm, rashed his doublet sleeves, ran him close by
the left cheek and through his hair. He, again, light me here--I had
on a gold cable hat-band, then new come up, about a murrey French hat
I had; cuts my hat-band, and yet it was massy goldsmith's work, cuts
my brim, which, by good fortune, being thick embroidered with gold
twist and spangles, disappointed the force of the blow; nevertheless
it grazed on my shoulder, takes me away six purls of an Italian
cut-work band I wore, cost me three pounds in the Exchange but three
days before.

"_Punt_. This was a strange encounter.

"_Fast_. Nay, you shall hear, sir. With this, we both fell out
and breathed. Now, upon the second sign of his assault, I betook me to
my former manner of defence; he, on the other side, abandoned his body
to the same danger as before, and follows me still with blows; but I,
being loath to take the deadly advantage that lay before me of his
left side, made a kind of stramazoun, ran him up to the hilt through
the doublet, through the shirt, and yet missed the skin. He, making a
reverse blow, falls upon my embossed girdle,--I had thrown off the
hangers a little before,--strikes off a skirt of a thick-laced satin
doublet I had, lined with four taffetas, cuts off two panes
embroidered with pearl, rends through the drawings-out of tissue,
enters the linings, and spiks the flesh.

"_Car_. I wonder he speaks not of his wrought shirt.

"_Fast_. Here, in the opinion of mutual damage, we paused. But,
ere I proceed, I must tell you, signior, that in the last encounter,
not having leisure to put off my silver spurs, one of the rowels
catched hold of the ruffles of my boot, and, being Spanish leather and
subject to tear, overthrows me, rends me two pair of silk stockings
that I put on, being somewhat of a raw morning, a peach colour and
another, and strikes me some half-inch deep into the side of the calf:
He, seeing the blood come, presently takes horse and away; I having
bound up my wound with a piece of my wrought shirt--

"_Car_. O, comes it in there.

"_Fast_. Ride after him, and, lighting at the court gate both
together, embraced, and marched hand in hand up into the presence. Was
not this business well carried?

"_Maci_. Well! yes; and by this we can guess what apparel the
gentleman wore.

"_Punt_. 'Fore valour! it was a designment begun with much
resolution, maintained with as much prowess, and ended with more
humanity."]

"Ay, ay," said the monk, muttering as he went up the winding stair,
"carry him his trumpery with all despatch. Alas! that man, with so
many noble objects of pursuit, will amuse himself like a jackanape,
with a laced jerkin and a cap and bells!--I must now to the melancholy
work of consoling that which is well-nigh inconsolable, a mother
weeping for her first-born."

Advancing, after a gentle knock, into the apartment of the women, he
found that Mary Avenel had retired to bed, extremely indisposed, and
that Dame Glendinning and Tibb were indulging their sorrows by the
side of a decaying fire, and by the light of a small iron lamp, or
cruize, as it was termed. Poor Elspeth's apron was thrown over her
head, and bitterly did she sob and weep for "her beautiful, her
brave,--the very image of her dear Simon Glendinning, the stay of her
widowhood and the support of her old age."

The faithful Tibb echoed her complaints, and, more violently
clamorous, made deep promises of revenge on Sir Piercie Shafton, "if
there were a man left in the south who could draw a whinger, or a
woman that could thraw a rape." The presence of the Sub-Prior imposed
silence on these clamours. He sate down by the unfortunate mother, and
essayed, by such topics as his religion and reason suggested, to
interrupt the current of Dame Glendinning's feelings; but the attempt
was in vain. She listened, indeed, with some little interest, while he
pledged his word and his influence with the Abbot, that the family
which had lost their eldest-born by means of a guest received at his
command, should experience particular protection at the hands of the
community; and that the fief which belonged to Simon Glendinning
should, with extended bounds and added privileges, be conferred on
Edward.

But it was only for a very brief space that the mother's sobs were
apparently softer, and her grief more mild. She soon blamed herself
for casting a moment's thought upon world's gear while poor Halbert
was lying stretched in his bloody shirt. The Sub-Prior was not more
fortunate, when he promised that Halbert's body "should be removed to
hallowed ground, and his soul secured by the prayers of the Church in
his behalf." Grief would have its natural course, and the voice of the
comforter was wasted in vain.




Chapter the Twenty-Eighth.


He is at liberty, I have ventured for him!
-----------------------------if the law
Find and condemn me for't, some living wenches,
Some honest-hearted maids will sing my dirge,
And tell to memory my death was noble,
Dying almost a martyr.
THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN.

The Sub-Prior of Saint Mary's, in taking his departure from the spence
which Sir Piercie Shafton was confined, and in which some preparations
were made for his passing the night as the room which might be most
conveniently guarded, left more than one perplexed person behind him.
There was connected with this chamber, and opening into it, a small
_outshot_, or projecting part of the building, occupied by a
sleeping apartment, which upon ordinary occasions, was that of Mary
Avenel, and which, in the unusual number of guests who had come to the
tower on the former evening, had also accommodated Mysie Happer, the
Miller's daughter; for anciently, as well as in the present day, a
Scottish house was always rather too narrow and limited for the extent
of the owner's hospitality, and some shift and contrivance was
necessary, upon any unusual occasion, to ensure the accommodation of
all the guests.

The fatal news of Halbert Glendinning's death had thrown all former
arrangements into confusion. Mary Avenel, whose case required
immediate attention, had been transported into the apartment hitherto
occupied by Halbert and his brother, as the latter proposed to watch
all night, in order to prevent the escape of the prisoner. Poor Mysie
had been altogether overlooked, and had naturally enough betaken
herself to the little apartment which she had hitherto occupied,
ignorant that the spence, through which lay the only access to it, was
to be the sleeping chamber of Sir Piercie Shafton. The measures taken
for securing him there had been so sudden, that she was not aware of
it, until she found that the other females had been removed from the
spence by the Sub-Prior's direction, and having once missed the
opportunity of retreating along with them, bashfulness, and the high
respect which she was taught to bear to the monks, prevented her
venturing forth alone, and intruding herself on the presence of Father
Eustace, while in secret conference with the Southron. There appeared
no remedy but to wait till their interview was over; and, as the door
was thin, and did not shut very closely, she could hear every word
that passed betwixt them.

It thus happened, that without any intended intrusion on her part, she
became privy to the whole conversation of the Sub-Prior and the
English knight, and could also observe from the window of her little
retreat, that more than one of the young men summoned by Edward
arrived successively at the tower. These circumstances led her to
entertain most serious apprehension that the life of Sir Piercie
Shafton was in great and instant peril.

Woman is naturally compassionate, and not less willingly so when youth
and fair features are on the side of him who claims her sympathy. The
handsome presence, elaborate dress and address, of Sir Piercie
Shafton, which had failed to make any favorable impression on the
grave and lofty character of Mary Avenel, had completely dazzled and
bewildered the poor Maid of the Mill. The knight had perceived this
result, and, flattered by seeing that his merit was not universally
underrated, he had bestowed on Mysie a good deal more of his courtesy
than in his opinion her rank warranted. It was not cast away, but
received with a devout sense of his condescension, and with gratitude
for his personal notice, which, joined to her fears for his safety,
and the natural tenderness of her disposition, began to make wild work
in her heart.

"To be sure it was very wrong in him to slay Halbert Glendinning," (it
was thus she argued the case with herself,) "but then he was a
gentleman born, and a soldier, and so gentle and courteous withal,
that she was sure the quarrel had been all of young Glendinning's own
seeking; for it was well known that both these lads were so taken up
with that Mary Avenel, that they never looked at another lass in the
Halidome, more than if they were of a different degree. And then
Halbert's dress was as clownish as his manners were haughty; and this
poor young gentleman, (who was habited like any prince,) banished from
his own land, was first drawn into a quarrel by a rude brangler, and
then persecuted and like to be put to death by his kin and allies."

Mysie wept bitterly at the thought, and then her heart rising against
such cruelty and oppression to a defenceless stranger, who dressed
with so much skill, and spoke with so much grace, she began to
consider whether she could not render him some assistance in this
extremity.

Her mind was now entirely altered from its original purpose. At first
her only anxiety had been to find the means of escaping from the
interior apartment, without being noticed by any one; but now she
began to think that Heaven had placed her there for the safety and
protection of the persecuted stranger. She was of a simple and
affectionate, but at the same time an alert and enterprising
character, possessing more than female strength of body, and more than
female courage, though with feelings as capable of being bewildered
with gallantry of dress and language, as a fine gentleman of any
generation would have desired to exercise his talents upon. "I will
save him," she thought, "that is the first thing to be resolved--and
then I wonder what he will say to the poor Miller's maiden, that has
done for him what all the dainty dames in London or Holyrood would
have been afraid to venture upon."

Prudence began to pull her sleeve as she indulged speculations so
hazardous, and hinted to her that the warmer Sir Piercie Shafton's
gratitude might prove, it was the more likely to be fraught with
danger to his benefactress. Alas! poor Prudence, thou mayest say with
our moral teacher,

"I preach for ever, but I preach in vain."

The Miller's maiden, while you pour your warning into her unwilling
bosom, has glanced her eye on the small mirror by which she has placed
her little lamp, and it returns to her a countenance and eyes, pretty
and sparkling at all times, but ennobled at present with the energy of
expression proper to those who have dared to form, and stand prepared
to execute, deeds of generous audacity. "Will these features--will
these eyes, joined to the benefit I am about to confer upon Sir
Piercie Shafton, do nothing towards removing the distance of rank
between us?"

Such was the question which female vanity asked of fancy; and though
even fancy dared not answer in a ready affirmative, a middle
conclusion was adopted--"Let me first succour the gallant youth, and
trust to fortune for the rest."

Banishing, therefore, from her mind every thing that was personal to
herself, the rash but generous girl turned her whole thoughts to the
means of executing this enterprise.

The difficulties which interposed were of no ordinary nature. The
vengeance of the men of that country, in cases of deadly feud, that
is, in cases of a quarrel excited by the slaughter of any of their
relations, was one of their most marked characteristics; and Edward,
however gentle in other respects, was so fond of his brother, that
there could be no doubt that he would be as signal in his revenge as
the customs of the country authorized. There were to be passed the
inner door of the apartment, the two gates of the tower itself, and
the gate of the court-yard, ere the prisoner was at liberty; and then
a guide and means of flight were to be provided, otherwise ultimate
escape was impossible. But where the will of woman is strongly bent on
the accomplishment of such a purpose, her wit is seldom baffled by
difficulties, however embarrassing.

The Sub-Prior had not long left the apartment, ere Mysie had devised a
scheme for Sir Piercie Shafton's freedom, daring, indeed, but likely
to be successful, if dexterously conducted. It was necessary, however,
that she should remain where she was till so late an hour, that all in
the tower should have betaken themselves to repose, excepting those
whose duty made them watchers. The interval she employed in observing
the movements of the person in whose service she was thus boldly a
volunteer.

She could hear Sir Piercie Shafton pace the floor to and fro, in
reflection doubtless on his own untoward fate and precarious
situation. By and by she heard him making a rustling among his trunks,
which, agreeable to the order of the Sub-Prior, had been placed in the
apartment to which he was confined, and which he was probably amusing
more melancholy thoughts by examining and arranging. Then she could
hear him resume his walk through the room, and, as if his spirits had
been somewhat relieved and elevated by the survey of his wardrobe, she
could distinguish that at one turn he half recited a sonnet, at
another half whistled a galliard, and at the third hummed a saraband.
At length she could understand that he extended himself on the
temporary couch which had been allotted to him, after muttering his
prayers hastily, and in a short time she concluded he must be fast
asleep.

She employed the moment which intervened in considering her enterprise
under every different aspect; and dangerous as it was, the steady
review which she took of the various perils accompanying her purpose,
furnished her with plausible devices for obviating them. Love and
generous compassion, which give singly such powerful impulse to the
female heart, were in this case united, and championed her to the last
extremity of hazard.

It was an hour past midnight. All in the tower slept sound but those
who had undertaken to guard the English prisoner; or if sorrow and
suffering drove sleep from the bed of Dame Glendinning and her
foster-daughter, they were too much wrapt in their own griefs to
attend to external sounds. The means of striking light were at hand
in the small apartment, and thus the Miller's maiden was enabled to
light and trim a small lamp. With a trembling step and throbbing
heart, she undid the door which separated her from the apartment in
which the Southron knight was confined, and almost flinched from her
fixed purpose, when she found herself in the same room with the
sleeping prisoner. She scarcely trusted herself to look upon him, as
he lay wrapped in his cloak, and fast asleep upon the pallet bed, but
turned her eyes away while she gently pulled his mantle with no more
force than was just equal to awaken him. He moved not until she had
twitched his cloak a second and a third time, and then at length
looking up, was about to make an exclamation in the suddenness of his
surprise.